Museums - Murals of La Jolla

Sometimes the best place to spot art is not within the walls of a conventional museum but outdoors. This post contains a sampling of murals from my most recent art walks in La Jolla. Shown above and described at the end, is my favorite mural, a past project by Raul Guerrero titled Raymond Chandler at the Whaling Bar.

Murals of La Jolla was conceived in 2010 as a means to enhance the civic character of the community by commissioning public art projects throughout La Jolla. All projects are located private property and privately funded.

There are currently 16 murals on view and the project has commissioned 52 artworks to date. Murals of La Jolla is a project of the Athenaeum, initiated by the La Jolla Community Foundation.

Details for current and past mural projects can be found at the foundation website. Information is available for a self-guided tour and also upcoming dates for scheduled guided tours.

Most of the murals are printed on vinyl and attached to the property though some are painted directly onto the building. An average printed mural lifespan is 5 years.

I had time to walk briefly along Fay Avenue in March and before that in 2023.

Ampersand, 2025 7744 Fay Avenue

Matt Rich’s mural, Ampersand, is an energetic collage of materials, forms, and colors that reflects the formal and conceptual threads of his practice, where elements converge and intertwine to reveal new relationships and possibilities.

Rich’s use of the & character emerges as a signature motif, serving as both a visual anchor and a symbolic gesture toward openness, continuation, and exchange. The looping form guides the viewer’s eye through the piece, with one end reaching upward and the other extending down to the right, acting as pathways in and out of the piece.

IN CHAINS, 2020 (previous mural at
7744 Fay Avenue)

Marcos Ramirez ERRE's mural, IN CHAINS, reappropriates the Snellen eye chart as a means of delivering critical commentary on issues of race, identity, and culture. Deemed the "king of jazz" by Duke Ellington, Paul Whiteman was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violist crucial to the Jazz movement of the 1920s and 30s. He began his 1926 book, Jazz, with the provocative quote "Jazz came to America 300 years ago in chains".

The Deep, Impenetrable and Mysterious Jungle, 2024
7766 Fay Avenue

Claudia Comte's mural, The Deep, Impenetrable and Mysterious Jungle, boldly revises compositional rules and expectations and takes content that would normally be in the background and brings it directly into the foreground.

NEWZ!, 2021 (previous mural at
7766 Fay Avenue)

Math Bass's mural Newz! exemplifies the artist's unique visual lexicon of forms and symbols that are meant to exist in a mutable world full of shifting perspectives and (re) interpretation.

Ebony on Draper and Girard, 2021
7724 Girard Avenue (back of building on Drury Lane)

June Edmonds' mural Ebony on Draper and Girard is inspired by Henrietta VanHorn-DeBose, the first African-American female to settle in La Jolla in the late 19th century. Henrietta and her husband, Thomas DeBose, were involved in acquiring La Jolla real estate, owning a large portion of Draper Avenue.

Painted directly onto the building, the curved lines of the mural are representative of portions of the actual streets where Vanhorn-DeBose owned property.

Landing, 2016 (previous mural at
7724 Girard Ave)

Heather Gwen Martin has hand picked a distinctive and vibrant color palette to ensconce the exterior of the three-story tower on the Drury Lane side of 7724 Girard Ave (Lapiz Building). Landing, is painted directly on the building.

The prominent, brilliant orange ground is interrupted by tributaries of other colors, creating a dynamic abstract composition.

Your Favorite Color, 2022
7596 Eads Avenue

Roy McMakin’s mural, Your Favorite Color, is the second iteration of Makin’s work at this site. His first mural here created in 2010, Favorite Color, has become a beloved landmark of the local community.

As such, McMakin has created a new iteration of his playful concept on the same site twelve years later. Just like its previous counterpart, Your Favorite Color came to fruition through the artist's collaborative concept centered around members of the community choosing their favorite color.

Since McMakin was a child, he has always been intrigued around his own emotions, as well as others’, around color preference and favorite colors.

While the new iteration of Favorite Color looks like the first version, it is completely different, as all of the color choices are new. Eight hundred and eighty-two individuals chose their favorite color over a three-day event at the Athenaeum in May 2022. There were 79 colors to choose from, and all of the colors were chosen at least once, while one color, in particular, was chosen 40 times.

Lime green was the most popular color choice in 2010, and in 2022 it is classic pink.

Painting directly onto the site, this piece puts color, play, and community engagement at the forefront creating a bright and cheerful grid spreading across the vast spectrum of color.

Favorite Color, 2010
7596 Eads Avenue

As described above, you’ll notice the prevalence of the favorite lime green color in the 2010 version.

Raymond Chandler at the Whaling Bar, 2018 (previous mural at 1162 Prospect Street)

Raul Guerrero's mural, Raymond Chandler at the Whaling Bar, is emblematic of a time and place in La Jolla's rich history. Inspired by Raymond Chandler's final novel Playback, Guerrero whimsically depicts La Valencia Hotel's iconic Whaling Bar. On display just a half a block from the famous hotel, it's a fitting homage to the author and the era. Playback was set in the La Jolla under the fictional guise of the small seaside town called Esmerelda as can be seen in the trail of smoke drifting from Chandler’s pipe. Bold and painterly, the artist explores the moody atmosphere of the bar and the bar goers suggestive of the tantalizing narrative that is about to unfold.

Several reasons why this one struck a chord with me - I liked the mural’s tie to the detective novel genre, I liked learning that the seaside town Esmeralda was based on La Jolla and I liked the vibrant color and style of the artwork.